many lives, many masters - read an excerpt!

7/30/2019 Many Lives, Many Masters - read an excerpt!

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fflFIRESIDERockefeller Center1230 Av enue of the Am erica sNew York, N Y 10020Copyright 1988 by Brian L. Weiss, M .D .A l l rights reserved,including the right of reproductioni n wh ole or in part in any form.FIRESIDE and co lo ph on are registered trademarksof Simon & Schuster, Inc .For information about special discounts for bulk purchases,please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales:1-800-456-6798 or [email protected] by Kathy KikkertManufactured in the U nite d States of America50 49 48Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication DataWeiss, Brian L. (Brian Leslie).

Many lives, many masters."A Fireside book ."1. Catherine, 1952 or 3 - . 2. Re incarnatio n

Biography. 3. Weiss, Brian L. (Brian Leslie).4. Rein carna tion therapy. I. Title.BL520.C37W45 1988 133.9'0r3 [B] 87-34323ISBN-13: 978-0-671-65786-4ISBN-10: 0-671-65786-0
mailto:[email protected]


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PREFACE


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1 know that there is a reason for everything. Perhaps at themoment that an event occurs we have neither the insight northe foresight to comprehend the reason, but with time andpatience it will come to light.

So it was w ith Catherine. I first met her in 1980 when shewas twenty-seven years old . She had come to m y office seek-ing help for her anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias. Althoughthese symptoms had been with her since childhood, in therecent past they had become much worse. Every day she foundherself more emotionally paralyzed and less able to function.She was terrified and understandably depressed.

In contrast to the chaos that was going on in her life atthat time, my life was flowing smoothly. I had a good stablemarriage, two young children, and aflourishingcareer.

From the beginning, my life seemed always to have beenon a straight course. I had grown up in a loving home. Academic success had come easily, and by my sophomore yearin college I had made the decision to become a psychiatrist.I was graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, fromColumbia University in New York in 1966. I then went tothe Yale University School of Medicine and received myM. D. degree in 1970. Following an internship at the NewYork University-Bellevue Medical Center, I returned to Yale

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10 Brian L. Weiss, M.D.to complete my residency in psychiatry. Upon completion, Iaccepted a faculty position at the University of Pittsburgh.Two years later, I joined the faculty of the University ofMiami, heading the psychopharmacology division. There Iachieved national recognition in the fields of biological psychiatry and substance abuse. After four years at the university,I was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the medical school, and I was appointed Chief ofPsychiatry at a large university-affiliated hospital in Miami.By that time, I had already published thirty-seven scientificpapers and book chapters in my field.

Years of disciplined study had trained my mind to think asa scientist and physician, molding me along the narrow pathsof conservatism in my profession. I distrusted anything thatcould not be proved by traditional scientific methods. I wasaware of some of the studies in parapsychology that werebeing conducted at major universities across the country, butthey did not hold my attention. It all seemed too farfetchedtome.

Then I met Catherine. For eighteen months I used conventional methods of therapy to help her overcome her symptoms.When nothing seemed to work, I tried hypnosis. In a series oftrance states, Catherine recalled "past-life" memories thatproved to be the causative factors of her symptoms. She alsowas able to act as a conduit for information from highlyevolved "spirit entities," and through them she revealed manyof the secrets of life and of death. In just a few short months,her symptoms disappeared, and she resumed her life, happierand more at peace than ever before.

Nothing in my background had prepared me for this. Iwas absolutely amazed when these events unfolded.

I do not have a scientific explanation for what happened.There is far too much about the human mind that is beyond


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Many Lives, Many Masters 11our comprehension. Perhaps, under hypnosis, Catherine wasable to focus in on the part of her subconscious mind thatstored actual past-life memories, or perhaps she had tappedinto what the psychoanalyst Carl Jung termed the collectiveunconscious, the energy source that surrounds us and containsthe memories of the entire human race.

Scientists are beginning to seek these answers. W e , as asociety, have much to gain from research into the mysteries ofthe mind, the soul, the continuation of life after death, andthe influence of our past-life experiences on our present behavior. Obviously, the ramifications are limitless, particularlyin the fields of medicine, psychiatry, theology, and philosophy.

However, scientifically rigorous research in this area is in itsinfancy. Strides are being made to uncover this information,but the process is slow and is met with much resistance byscientists and lay people alike.

Throughout history, humankind has been resistant tochange and to the acceptance of new ideas. Historical lore isreplete with examples. W h en Galileo discovered the moons ofJupiter, the astronomers of that time refused to accept or evento look at these satellites because the existence of these moonsconflicted with their accepted beliefs. So it is now withpsychiatrists and other therapists, who refuse to examine andevaluate the considerable evidence being gathered about survival after bodily death and about past-life memories. Theireyes stay tightly shut.

This book is my small contribution to the ongoing researchin the field of parapsychology, especially the branch dealingwith our experiences before birth and after death. Every wordthat you will be reading is true. I have added nothing, and Ihave deleted only those parts that were repetitious. I haveslightly changed Catherine's identity to ensure confidentiality.

It took me four years to write about what happened, four


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12 Brian L. Weiss, M.D.years to garner the courage to take the professional risk ofrevealing this unorthodox information.

Suddenly one night while I was taking a shower, I feltcompelled to put this experience down on paper. I had astrong feeling that the time was right, that I should not withhold the information any longer. The lessons I had learnedwere meant to be shared with others, not to be kept private.The knowledge had come through Catherine and now hadto come through me. I knew that no possible consequence Imight face could prove to be as devastating as not sharingthe knowledge I had gained about immortality and the truemeaning of life.

I rushed out of the shower and sat down at my desk withthe stack of audio tapes I had made during my sessions withCatherine. In the wee hours of the morning, I thought of myold Hungarian grandfather who had died while I was still ateenager. Whenever I would tell him that I was afraid to takea risk, he would lovingly encourage me by repeating hisfavorite E nglish expression: "Vat the hell," he would say,"vat the hell."


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ONE


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first time I saw Catherine she was wearing a vividcrimson dress and was nervously leafing through a magazinein my waiting room. She was visibly out of breath. For theprevious twenty minutes she had been pacing the corridoroutside the Department of Psychiatry offices, trying to convince herself to keep her appointment with me and not runaway.

I went out to the waiting room to greet her, and we shookhands. I noticed that hers were cold and damp, confirming heranxiety. A ctu ally , it had taken her two months of courage-gathering to make an appointment to see me even thoughshe had been strongly advised to seek my help by two staffphysicians, both of whom she trusted. Finally, she was here.

Catherine is an extraordinarily attractive woman, withmedium-length blond hair and hazel eyes. A t that time, sheworked as a laboratory technician in the hospital where I wasChief of Psychiatry, and she earned extra money modelingswimwear.I ushered her into my office, past the couch and to a largeleather chair. W e sat across from each other, my semicirculardesk separating us. Catherine leaned back in her chair, silent,not knowing where to begin. I waited, preferring that shechoose the opening, but after a few minutes I began inquiring

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16 Brian L. Weiss, M.D.about her past. O n that first visit we began to unravel whoshe was and why she had come to see me.

In answer to my questions, Catherine revealed the story ofher life. She was the middle child, reared in a conservativeCatholic family in a small Massachusetts town. H er brother,born three years earlier than she, was very athletic, and heenjoyed a freedom that she was never allowed. Her youngersister was the favorite of both parents.When we started to talk about her symptoms, she becamenoticeably more tense and nervous. Her speech was rapid,and she leaned forward, resting her elbows on the desk. Herlife had always been burdened with fears. She feared water,feared choking to the extent that she could not swallow pills,feared airplanes, feared the dark, and she was terrified ofdying. In the recent past, her fears had begun to worsen. Inorder to feel safe, she often slept in the walk-in closet in herapartment. She suffered two to three hours of insomnia beforebeing able to fall alseep. Once asleep, she would sleep lightlyand fitfully, awakening frequently. The nightmares and sleepwalking episodes that had plagued her childhood were returning. As her fears and symptoms increasingly paralyzed her,she became more and more depressed.

As Catherine continued to talk, I could sense how deeplyshe was suffering. Over the years I had helped many patientslike Catherine through the agonies of their fears, and I feltconfident that I could help her, too. I decided we would beginby delving into her childhood, looking for the original sourcesof her problems. Usually this kind of insight helps to alleviateanxiety. If necessary, and if she could manage to swallow pills,I would oflFer her some mild anti-anxiety medications to makeher more comfortable. This was standard textbook treatmentfor Catherine's symptoms, and I never hesitated to use tranquilizers, or even antidepressant medicines, to treat chronic,


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Many Lives, Many Masters 17severe fears and anxieties. Now I use these medicines muchmore sparingly and only temporarily, if at all. N o medicine canreach the real roots of these symptoms. M y experiences withCatherine and others like her have proved this to me. Now Iknow there can be cures, not just the suppression or covering-over of symptoms.

During the first session, I kept trying to gently nudge herback to her childhood. Because Catherine remembered amazingly few events from her early years, I made a mental noteto consider hypnotherapy as a possible shortcut to overcomethis repression. She could not remember any particularly traumatic moments in her childhood that would explain the epidemic of fears in her life.

As she strained and stretched her mind to remember, isolated memory fragments emerged. W h en she was about fiveyears old, she had panicked when someone had pushed her offa diving board into a swimming pool. She said that even before that incident, however, she had never felt comfortablein water. W h en Catherine was eleven, her mother had become severely depressed. Her mother's strange withdrawalfrom the fam ily necessitated visits to a psychiatrist with ensuin g electroshock treatments. These treatments had made itdifficult for her mother to remember things. This experiencewith her mother frightened Catherine, but, as her mother improved and became "herself" again, Catherine said that herfears dissipated. Her father had a long-standing history ofalcohol abuse, and sometimes Catherine's brother had to retrieve their father from the local bar. Her father's increasingalcohol consumption led to his having frequent fights with hermother, who would then become moody and withdrawn. How ever, Catherine viewed this as an accepted family pattern.

Things were better outside the home. She dated in highschool and mixed in easily with her friends, most of whom


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18 Brian L . Weiss, M.D.she had k n o w n for man y years. H ow ev er , she fo und it difficultto trust people, especially those outside her s m al l circl e offriends.

Her religion was simple and unquestioned. She was raisedto believe in traditional Catholic ideology and practices, andshe had never rea lly doubted the truthfulness and validity ofher faith. She believed that if you were a good Catholic andl ived properly by observing the faith and its rituals, youwould be rewarded by going to heaven; if not, you would experience purgatory or hell . A patriarchal God and his Sonmade these final decisions. I later learned that Catherine didnot believe in reincarnation; in fact, she knew very little aboutthe concept, although she had read sparingly about the Hindus.Reincarnation was an idea contrary to her upbringing andunderstanding. She had never read any metaphysical or occultliterature, having had no interest in it. She was secure in herbeliefs.

After hi gh school, Catherine com pleted a two-year technicalprogram, emerging as a laboratory technician. Armed wi th aprofession and encouraged by her brother's move to Tampa,Catherine landed a job in M i a m i at a large teaching hospitalaffiliated with the Univ ersity of M i a m i School of Medicine.She moved to M i a m i in the spring of 1974, at the age oftwenty-one.

Catherine's life in a small town had been easier than herlife i n M i a m i turned out to be, yet she was glad she had fledher family problems.

D u r i n g her first year in M i a m i , Catherine met Stuart. M ar ried, Jewish, and with tw o chi ldr en, he was tota lly differentfrom any other man she had ever dated. He was a successfulphysician, strong and aggressive. There was an irresistiblechemistry between them, but their affair was rocky and tempestuous. Something about him drew out her passions and


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Many Lives, Many Masters 19awak ened her, as if she were charm ed by h im . A t the tim eCatherine started therapy, her affair with Stuart was in itssixth year and very much alive, if not wel l . Catherine couldnot resist Stuart although he treated her poorly, and she wasfurious at his lies, bro ke n promises, and m ani pul atio ns.

Several months pr io r to her appointment w it h me, C atherine had required vocal cord surgery for a benign nodule. Shehad been anxious prior to the surgery but was absolutely terrified upon awakening in the recovery room. It took hours forthe nursing staff to calm her. After her recovery in the hospital , she sought out Dr. Edward Poole. Ed was a kindly pediatrician whom Catherine had met while working in thehospital. They had both felt an instant rapport and had developed a close friendship. Catherine talked freely to Ed, tel l ing him of her fears, her relationship with Stuart, and thatshe felt she was los in g co nt ro l ove r her life. He insisted thatshe ma ke an appointm ent w it h me and on ly me, not wi th anyof m y associate psychiatrists. W h e n E d ca lle d to tel l me abouthis referral, he explained that, for some reason, he thoughtonly I co ul d tru ly understand Cathe rine, even tho ug h theother psychiatrists also had excellent credentials and wereskilled therapists. Ca theri ne di d not call me, however.

Eight weeks passed. In the crunch of my busy practice ashead of the De pa rtm ent of Psychiatry, I had forgotten aboutEd's call. Catherine's fears and phobias worsened. Dr. FrankAcker, Chief of Surgery, had known Catherine casually foryears, and they often bantered good-naturedly when he visitedthe laboratory where she worked. He had noticed her recentunhappiness and sensed her tension. Several times he hadmeant to say som eth ing to her but ha d hesitated. O ne afternoo n, Fr an k was d ri vi ng to a sma ller, out-of-the way ho spit alto give a lecture. O n the way, he saw Ca therin e d ri v in g to herhome, which was close to that hospital , and impulsively


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20 Brian L. Weiss, M.D.waved her to the side of the road. "I want you to see Dr.Weiss now" he yelled through the window. "N o delays." A l though surgeons often act impulsively, even Frank was surprised at how emphatic he was.

Catherine's panic attacks and anxiety were increasing infrequency and duration. She began having two recurrent nightmares. In one, a bridge collapsed while she was driving acrossit. H er car plunged into the water below, and she was trappedand drowning. In the second dream, she was trapped in apitch-black room, stumbling and falling over things, unableto find a way out. Finally, she came to see me.

At the time of my first session with Catherine, I had noidea that my life was about to turn upside down, that thefrightened, confused woman across the desk from me wouldbe the catalyst, and that I would never be the same again.

many lives, many masters - read an excerpt!

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